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Defense Business Alert

The Defense Department supports a proposed law that would expand the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to allow for more detailed government reviews of business transactions, especially those involving China and emerging technologies, that could put the defense industrial base at risk.

The Pentagon's new industrial base review, spurred by an executive order, is on track to be delivered in April, the chief of the Defense Department's manufacturing and industrial base policy office said today.

Congress may have aimed in the wrong direction with a new provision intended to reform the way the Pentagon handles contractors' bid protests, according to a new study RAND Corp. recently delivered to Capitol Hill.

Congress may have aimed in the wrong direction with a new provision intended to reform the way the Pentagon handles contractors' bid protests, according to a new study RAND Corp. recently delivered to Capitol Hill.

The Air Force says Northrop Grumman hasn't improved the quality or speed of maintenance on E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System jets despite efforts to nudge the company along, although Northrop argues it is taking steps to better its workflow.

The Air Force's new mechanism to prototype space capabilities may be more popular than anticipated, prompting the service to consider what to do if the program hits its $100 million project ceiling before the end of its initial five-year term.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each secured $110 million contracts to prototype and demonstrate a low-cost, subsonic "Gray Wolf" cruise missile for the Air Force Research Laboratory, out of a pool of seven companies.

The Pentagon may not survey companies to obtain new data for a major defense industrial base review, opting instead to rely on information gathered in the past, according to a Defense Department spokesman.

The head of Army Materiel Command has directed a review of the six strategic sourcing contracts under his authority to assess whether the contract requirements were defined correctly and whether the most effective vehicle was used.

The Pentagon wants to increasingly use "other transaction" authority to accelerate acquisition timelines and bolster its business with commercial companies, but DOD officials concede the department faces a lack of knowledge about the unusual contracting method.